Frozen french fry dispensers are known in the art. An example is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,282,498 issued to Cahlander et al; U.S. Pat. No. 5,353,847 issued to Cahlander et al; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,191,918 issued to Cahlander et al. Each of the foregoing patents discloses a french fry dispenser which includes a main storage bin, a device for moving the fries from the main storage bin into a secondary location, a means for holding the fries in the secondary location, and a complex apparatus for moving empty cooking baskets into position under the secondary storage location.
While the disclosed dispenser automates the process of dispensing frozen articles and has been successful in the marketplace, there are several areas in which the dispenser may be improved. First, the complex apparatus used for automatically moving the plurality of baskets into position under the secondary position is often not needed and/or desired by the end-user. Further, in such instances, providing such a device introduces unnecessarily complex and expensive equipment into the dispenser.
Second, the manner in which the disclosed apparatus determines the weight of the articles to dispense does not provide highly accurate results (e.g., dispensing by time and by volume may be non-linear based in part upon the articles dispensed). To solve the problem, a load cell is often used to accurately measure the weight of the articles. However, such a load cell is usually an expensive piece of equipment which adds more expense into the dispenser apparatus. Accordingly, there is a need for an inexpensive and accurate load/weight measuring device.
Third, the device for moving the fries from the main storage bin into the secondary location may be clogged by large clumps of fries thus causing breakage of the fries. Further, in some instances, articles which have different characteristics from fries are desired to be dispensed. Accordingly, a controllable device is needed to resolve this problem.
Fourth, the manner in which the disclosed apparatus dispenses does not have an efficient dispensing rate for various types of food products or articles. More specifically, the dispensing rate is either too fast which causes difficulty in stopping at an accurate weight or too slow which extends to an unreasonable time. The fundamental problem is that a dense product or product with a large weight per particle, if dispensed rapidly, cannot be stopped at an accurate weight, for example, due to the weight of product in flight, i.e. the weight of the product which has not reached the weighing mechanism but has been dispensed. Thus, there is a need to dispense the product at an appropriate rate, e.g. at a rate which reacts to the approaching target weight. Another associated problem is that if the load/weight sensing/measuring assembly operates at a rate appropriate to a denser product, a weighing cycle may be extended to an unreasonable time, e.g. four to six times the cycle for a heavier product. Thus, there is a need for a controllable weighing mechanism to provide an appropriate dispensing rate based on the weight of articles dispensed. Such an improved dispenser apparatus should also provide for accurate weighing by taking into account differences in each different dispenser unit and characteristics of the articles dispensed, i.e. the weighing mechanism should learn over time, e.g. several dispensing cycles, to account for such discrepancies.
Fifth, it is often desired to limit the defrosting/thawing of the frozen articles. In many cases, however, the frozen articles to be dispensed from the disclosed apparatus are easily defrosted or thawed, especially when the dispenser is the near cooking area. Accordingly, there is a need for an air restricting mechanism implemented in the apparatus to help slow the defrosting/thawing of the frozen articles.
Sixth, the disclosed apparatus is adapted for dispensing frozen fries. The disclosed apparatus is not configured and arranged to dispense other articles, such as onion rings, drummies, or even different sized frozen fries, etc. Therefore, there is a need for an improved dispenser apparatus which is configured and arranged to dispense a variety of food products or articles.